Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-08-06
ST. PETERSBURG.
THE CAPITAL OF RUSSIA GHOST
BY THE GREAT GEAR.
City that Any Nation Can be Proud of
The Magnificent View from the TrOitsh
Bridge-The Line of Terra-Cotta Color'
Archducal Palaces Facing the Neva.

The Magnificent View from the Troitsh
Bridge-The Line of Terra-Cotta Color'
Archducal Palaces Facing the Neva.
1t Is forty hours In the train from
Berlin to st. Petersburg. On first cross
ing the frontier you see but little differ
ence, for you pass through Russia's Ger
man provinces. These provinces wer'
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centurie
conquered from the pagan Slavs by TIL
Teutonic knights "a religious order o
similar constitution to the Knight,
Templars), and by them colonized witt
German merchants. Until quite latel
they were allowed large amount o
self-rule, and German was used as tn
official language; but 1t is so no longer
Yet the provinces still show their origin
for all the great landlords and all the
business men are of German blood and
the language of business is German, al
though the peasants are Slavs.
As you get further on into Russia the
long boots of the country people show
that you have come int, the land of mud
and bad roads. All along the line you
see that monotonous beauty Of every
northern landscape: the wild thick
grown forest in which pines and birch
strive for the mastery, the sluggish river
now broadening into a sedgy mere, and
deep soft marshy meadows roughly
rallied with split timber. But above ALL
the landscape conveys to the stranger a
sense of space; as of country where
every tree is not numbered, where there
is much land and few men, where 1t is
cheaper and easier to make fresh road
over a new bit of land than to repair the
ruts of the old track. But when the sun
goes down behind hill, throwing bright
light on the foliage of the wood opposite
"a foliage not of a dusky blue-green,
but with the dark pines relieved by the
lightest, freshest green, the green of the
birches-and the light wrinkles on the
silver birch stems and the surface of the
quiet river turns to gold, then one sees
the Russian sunset as portrayed by
Tourgenietf with glamour over its lone
Illness. At that moment the sight recalled
the landscape seen so often in stage
painting; and the Russian peasants are
opera-chorus peasants, dressed in bright
red skirts buckled round the waist and
hanging loose over the trousers, which
are always thrust into long boots. Over
the skirt they wear sheep-skin coming
down to their ankles. The women wear
pink or red dresses (the Slav likes bright
colors), bead necklaces, gaudy hand
kerchief over the head, and the legs,
when they are not bare, tied round with
bands.
At last we arrive at CATCHING, but see
nothing of the palace from the train;
then we come to -Selo, where
there is another palace; and then the
line, skirting the last hill, enters the
great level marsh in which st. Peters,
burg is built. There are no environs;
but gradually you see rising out of the
plain mass of trees, over which emerge
spires and domes, and the train rolls
into st. Petersburg.
Is St. Petersburg fine capitalp Does
1t compare favorably with the great capt.
tails of EuropeP The answer must be yes.
A traveller from the West must admit
that Russia has reason to be proud of
the capital chosen for her by Peter the
Great, and built by his successors. To
see St. Petersburg one should stand on
the Troitsky bridge, where the Neva is
twice as broad as the Thames, and look
first at the elegant tapering needle-spire
of the fortress-cathedra of SITS. Peter
and Paul, gilded up to the angel on top
standing ten feet higher than st. Paurs,
London, and looking all the more ethe-
real for the heavy brick bastions of the
prison citadel from which it escapes, and
which fortunately conceal the very ordi-
nary church to which the spire belongs.
line of palaces facing the Neva remem-
bering that every grand duke is allotted,
on coming of age 100000, to be spent
in building. Perhaps the frontage of
the palace is somewhat uniform, owing
to the absence of decoration; but very
imposing is the sight of the two
miles of continuous fine buildings
facing the broad river. In the center is
the huge winter palace of the Gar, next
to it is the Hermitage picture gallery;
from there up to the bridge stretch the
palaces of the grand dukes; in the other
direction, down the river, are the palaces
of the mobiles; and the whole of this long
line of level roof is divided in the middle
by the tapering spire of the admiralty
and backed by the overmastering gilded
dome of ST. Isaac's Cathedral. Further,
all this architecture is seen in bright,
clear light; there is no SCOT or smoke;
the gliding is real glittering gold, not
yellow ochre, and what is peculiar to
Russia, instead of the starry white paint
one is accustomed to in Paris and its imi-
tations, the palaces of the Neva Except,
of course, the marble palace of the Grand
Duke Alexander, uncle of the Czar), are
colored delicious creamy warm terra
Gotta.
But, taken in detail, the cathedrals and
palaces are not INTELLECTUALLY salts
factory. St. Isaac's Cathedral is large
palladian pile in the shape of Greek
cross, enormously rich in material but
wanting in freedom and proportion.
Begun In 1919 and finished in 1858, it's
French architect, M. Montferrand, left
nothing undone that could render his
work unrivaled in costliness. The golden
cupola rises to a height greater than st.
Paups by forty-tive feet, although, from
it's heavy mechanical design, it would
seem to a person not appraised of the
fact to be far less lofty The costliness
of the internal ornamentation almost
4 Al.